Will the EU finally see sense over its Common Agricultural Policy?

What should be done about Ukraine’s grain exports? Ongoing controversy in Poland over the country’s imports into the EU, which currently face zero tariffs, gives a flavour of the fights to come if Ukraine becomes a fully-fledged member of the bloc. It also presents an opportunity to start a much-overdue conversation about the EU’s worst, most damaging policy programme: the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

In a striking move, Poland’s agriculture minister Henryk Kowalczyk announced his resignation yesterday – the day of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s official visit to Warsaw on his third trip outside Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last year. The reason for Kowalcyk’s departure was his failure, together with several other Eastern European governments, to convince the European Commission to restrict imports of Ukrainian grain into the EU.

Poland’s government has been trying to separate Poland’s commitment to helping Ukraine – which has been exemplary – from the dispute over Ukrainian grain exports, which have been arriving in the EU, tariff-free, since the beginning of the war.